After Colony

After Colony is an era that features in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

History

After Colony (AC) was the dating system that begins with the foundation of the first space colonies of Earth. The calendar started in AC 001 when several nations establish permanent space stations in Earth orbit. By AC 020, the colony A0206 is constructed at Lagrange point 5. This colony will later become the home of the fierce and mighty Long clan when they are exiled from Earth by their fearful government. In AC 022, space colony construction begins at Lagrange point 1. Due to unexpectedly severe conditions and strange new diseases, construction is greatly delayed. By AC 050, nations began withdrawing from space, until the countries of the Middle East - leaving the oil industry and looking for a new enterprise to invest in - join the colony project. Colony construction begins at the other Lagrange points. Around AC 070, scarce resources and limited supplies from Earth caused disputes breaking out at each Lagrange point. The Middle Eastern nations intercede and negotiate an end to the conflicts. In AC 087, the colony V08744 is constructed at Lagrange point 2. By AC 102, an Island 2 type colony is completed at Lagrange point 1 (L-1). With this success achieved, the colony project goes on to construct population centers composed of multiple colonies, popularly known as 'colony clusters'. With Earth's territorial lines redrawn, the conflicts die down by AC 130. In spring of that year, twin princesses Katrina and Sabrina Peacecraft of Sanc Kingdom are born. (Frozen Teardrop)

On Earth, international disputes continue to escalate. Civilians flee the conflict by emigrating to the colonies, and soon 15% of the human population is living in space.

The After Colony era began with humanity’s push into space to alleviate Earth’s overcrowding and environmental strain. Massive space colonies were constructed at the five Lagrangian points, each housing millions of people and designed as near self-sufficient habitats. Although the colonies were established with ideals of peace and cooperation, their governance and economies were quickly drawn under Earth’s influence. The Earth Sphere Alliance, a coalition of Earth’s major powers, maintained control through military oversight and resource extraction, using their armed wing—OZ, the Organization of the Zodiac—to suppress colonial dissent. While the colonies dreamed of autonomy and peace, the Earth Sphere increasingly saw them as tools for consolidating power and resources.

Tensions escalated in the early A.C. years as colonial resentment grew against Earth’s authoritarian presence. The Alliance stationed military forces within the colonies under the guise of maintaining order, but in reality used intimidation and surveillance to keep them compliant. Space colonies found themselves stripped of self-determination, and attempts to resist Earth’s policies were swiftly crushed by OZ’s superior mobile suit forces. In response, colonial leaders, scientists, and sympathizers began plotting a resistance. This led to the development of the Gundam mobile suits—heavily armed, unique machines piloted by young operatives sent to Earth as part of Operation Meteor. Their mission was to strike at Earth’s military infrastructure, disrupt OZ’s operations, and ignite the flames of revolution on behalf of the oppressed colonies. The After Colony era was defined by this escalating cycle of control and rebellion. While Earth maintained its dominance through mobile suit production and vast military resources, the colonies fostered secret networks of resistance, culminating in the Gundam pilots’ interventions on Earth. Each Gundam carried not only destructive power but also symbolic weight as the will of the colonies manifest in mechanical form. As Operation Meteor unfolded, the A.C. calendar entered one of its bloodiest chapters, with battles stretching across Earth and space alike, shifting the balance of power between the Alliance, OZ, and the colonies themselves. This era thus became synonymous with constant upheaval, war, and the struggle for liberation.

In the year After Colony 195, Operation Meteor was unilaterally and preemptively initiated by five disenfranchised scientists from the space colonies as an act of retaliation against the tyrannical United Earth Sphere Alliance and its internal warmongering organization, OZ. The original, brutal blueprint for the operation, devised by Dekim Barton, had called for several space colonies to be forcibly de-orbited and crashed onto the Earth, causing mass environmental and political disarray. During the ensuing chaos, five highly advanced mobile suits constructed from nearly indestructible Gundanium alloy, known as "Gundams", were to descend to Earth as tools of massacre to seize control. However, most of the scientists, appalled by the prospect of mass genocide, abandoned this horrific strategy. They instead modified their individual plans, each opting to send a single, highly-trained teenage pilot in their respective Gundam to Earth on April 7, AC 195, to wage a targeted, independent campaign of guerrilla warfare specifically against OZ installations. These pilots—Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, and Chang Wufei—were largely unaware of each other's existence or the full scope of the original, discarded plan, believing themselves to be the sole agents of the operation. Their initial actions involved entering Earth's atmosphere, often disguised as shooting stars, and immediately engaging in combat with OZ forces, such as when Heero Yuy's Wing Gundam clashed with the ace pilot Zechs Merquise's Tallgeese.

Overview

In appearance, After Colony had unfolded as a turbulent era marked by both technological innovation and political upheaval. It resembled a fractured society struggling to define itself: shimmering satellite cities and heavily industrialized space colonies orbited Earth like steel-wrought planets, their exteriors gleaming under the sun but interiors scarred by economic disparity and corporate dominance. On Earth, towering arcologies and sprawling urban centers were juxtaposed with poverty-stricken zones where colonists struggling under debt lived in crowded tenement blocks. The sky was often veiled in a gray haze of industrial fallout, while at night, the G-Else network broadcast its messages into every corner of the globe. Throughout After Colony, the contrast between hopeful progress and crushing oppression was ever‑present, and atop orbiting colonies, the Aile Strike Gundam and its counterparts became icons of both fear and emancipation.

After Colony had unfolded primarily across several key locations: the space colonies of the Lagrange Points—particularly Sanc Kingdom (AC¹), Alexandria and Adelaide (AC²)—had served as crucibles for rebellion. OZ headquarters stood atop the orbiting city of OZYRL during AC¹. Earth’s geopolitically disparate nations—such as the Atlantic Federation covering the Americas, the European Community, and nations like China and Japan—were affected by uprisings centered on university towns and neglected industrial regions. The space elevator at Darm City connected Earth to space, making it a strategic supply choke-point guarded by both OZ and colonial forces. Even the temperate forests of Japan’s Unidentified Freight Zone became impromptu battlefields for Gundam duels. These locations shaped the drama of war, uprising, and fragile peace.

The events of After Colony profoundly impacted diverse segments of humanity: colonial governments, civilian populations, and rogue factions. Colonists had suffered under cold, corporate-led rule, losing rights and lifeblood to mechanized militarism. Earth’s population had been terrorized by OZ’s Gundam attacks, fearing civilian casualties from 'secret weapons' deployed in Hiroshima and Hamburg. Yet, beyond the fear, a critical consciousness had sparked within students, workers, and soldiers—many of whom had supported the Gundams after witnessing the extent of colonial oppression. The power of individual will and moral courage became clearer as seemingly faceless colonists risked their lives to shield Freedom fighters, secure military bases, or decry tyranny under the G-Else’s exhortations.

The first mobile suit was the OZ-00MS Tallgeese, a high-powered prototype unit built in After Colony 170. This prototype unit was considered too powerful for mass production (and for most pilots to handle), and was later redesigned into the more average-performing mass-production OZ-06MS Leo. The researchers who worked on the Tallgeese then defected to the Space Colonies, designing a mobile suit that would outperform the Tallgeese on all levels.

The United Earth Sphere Alliance was a coalition of most of Earth's nations. Though it meant peace for Earth, the UESA extended an iron fist over its orbital colonies in space. The United Earth Sphere Alliance, or UESA, came into being in the year A.C. 133. The Alliance was a governing body for the Earth and the colonies that was originally intended to act as a type of mutual defense pact. The Alliance was led by elected representatives from the nations of the Earth and the colonies. It was intended that the creation of the Alliance would lead to the end of the conflicts that had begun on Earth and then spread to the colonies. Not everyone, however, agreed with these policies and the conflicts continued.

The colonies were massive, self-sustaining artificial habitats constructed in the gravitationally stable Lagrange points (L-points) of the Earth-Moon system. Generally based on the Stanford "Island 2" cylindrical design, these orbital cities were engineered to replicate Earth's environment, utilizing rotation to generate centrifugal artificial gravity and large external mirrors to reflect sunlight into the interior, simulating a natural day-night cycle. Construction began early in the After Colony era, and by the time the narrative of the Gundam Wing series commenced in AC 195, the colonies were home to the vast majority of humanity, with an estimated 90% of the Earth Sphere's population residing in space. Politically, the colonies were not independent nations but were administered by the various earthly nations and, later, were brought under the oppressive heel of the United Earth Sphere Alliance. This political subjugation and military control, enforced by the Alliance's special forces, the Organization of the Zodiac (OZ), led to widespread resentment and the eventual colonial struggle for autonomy and freedom, providing the primary backdrop for the ensuing conflict.

Participants

• Heero Yuy :
• Katrina Peacecraft :
• Sabrina Peacecraft :
• Jay Null :
• Odin Lowe :

Notes

• After Colony was created by Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino where it featured in the setting of the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing universe.
• The main events of the Gundam Wing series take place in After Colony 195.

Appearances

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:

External Links

• Gundam Wiki Entry

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